Travis Touchdown
Travis Touchdown (トラヴィス・タッチダウン Toravisu Tacchidaun) AKA Holy Sword/Crownless King/No More Hero is the main character of No More Heroes and its sequel, No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. He is a 27-year-old American assassin and stereotypical otaku – his motel room decorated with professional wrestling and anime collectibles – living in near poverty in the motel "NO MORE HEROES" of Santa Destroy, California accompanied by his kitten Jeane (most likely named after his lost love). He appears to have interest in lucha libre and Japanese pro wrestling icons (like Thunder Ryu), as well as a moe driven anime series called Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly; his apartment is filled with such mentioned merchandise. After winning a beam katana in an online auction he becomes a hitman. When he runs out of money to buy video games he accepts a job to kill Helter-Skelter, also known as "the Drifter," which earns him rank eleven by the United Assassins Association, a governing body of assassins. Realizing that he has now made himself a target for aspiring assassins, he sets out to secure himself as number one in the UAA. He gets around on his motorcycle, dubbed the "Schpeltiger." Travis Touchdown is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. Backstory Travis' past is somewhat explored in the game, and at times deliberately (and humorously) muddled, and filled with stereotypes. His parents were killed when he was young, apparently by his love (and though unbeknownst to him, sister) Jeane who had a traumatic and complex past, leaving Travis on his own. He had a twin brother, Henry, he never knew, who apparently grew up in Ireland. Travis has apparently had interest in being a pro wrestler at one point, and trained himself in the use of the sword via a mixture of Thunder Ryu's training, correspondence courses, and videotapes. History Though it is heavily implied in the cliffhanging clash of the real ending of No More Heroes that Henry and Travis honorably kill each other, it is revealed that both Henry and Travis seem to be dissatisfied with the fight since Sylvia had interrupted it before one could kill the other. Touchdown returns in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, set three years after Touchdown becomes the top assassin in the UAA. Desperate Struggle finds Touchdown withdrawn from the ranks of the UAA, rejoining as the fifty-first in rank after killing Skelter Helter. While initially motivated by Christel with the promise of sex (again), after finding out that his best friend, Bishop Shidux, has been killed by hitmen hired by the 1st rank assassin Jasper Batt Jr., he seeks revenge and rises up the ranks to kill Batt. After the events of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, he and Sylvia have truly gotten together, and planned to go back to Santa Destroy. Whether or not he stopped his profession as an assassin is unknown. Personality and Appearance Travis usually wears a light weight leather jacket, t-shirt, jeans and sunglasses, though his outfit varies more in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Travis has dark spiky hair, and blue eyes, is 6'0" and weighs 170lbs. While Travis displays crude, punkish and immature behavior, and is especially cruel toward the male assassins he fights, he displays normal and decent behavior whenever he isn't on the job. Travis is relatively calm about killing people, but in the first No More Heroes, killing women made him feel uncomfortable. He is capable of being touched by people's emotional and personal experiences, seeing that he didn't seem entirely settled after killing Dr. Peace, whose daughter was estranged from him. Despite his sadism, Travis himself is not without morals; he has a certain amount of honor and respect for people he believes to be "True Warriors", as he tries to spare the assassin Ryuji in Desperate Struggle, and after experiencing the grueling and inhumane trials of Ranking Battles twice over, he became determined to take down the UAA once and for all. Touchdown is very driven to prove himself, is shown to be highly knowledgeable and a slow learner, and can be surprisingly funny and even humourous. Touchdown takes his friendships very seriously as well, as evidenced by his quest to avenge the murder of Bishop Shidux, after which he seems to learn something about the repercussions that death has on others aside from the one being killed. His red jacket, unique swordplay, physical abilities and amoral persona are comparable to Samurai Champloo's Mugen (curiously, No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacture was involved in the video game Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked). Abilities, Powers and Combat Skills Travis, despite being an otaku, is a very formidable assassin, having learned how to wield a sword from correspondence tapes, and is able to grapple from his own former training in Calgary to being inspired and mimicking certain moves by seeing various wrestling tapes. After becoming acquainted with Randall Lovikov, the town drunk, Travis is taught special techniques that compliment his arsenal of combat skills. When properly provoked, Travis can snap into a "Dark Side" mode (that in game is accessed by lining up three objects in a slot machine mini game after killing a foe). When in Dark Side, he gains superhuman strength, speed, invincibility, and powers that can affect reality, to sometimes resorting to cheating and unfair methods. His preferred weapon are beam katanas, and can also be upgraded throughout the game, initially starting with the Blood Berry, followed by the durable Tsubaki, the heavily upgraded and empowered Tsubaki Mk-II (which comprises five rotating beams, and requires more finesse to wield), the Tsubaki Mk-III, a very showy beam katana designed from the beam Samurai sword of Travis' mentor, Thunder Ryu, the Peony, a slow, but powerful "giant beam katana' capable of expanding its blade, and the Rose Nasty, versatile dual katanas made for fast killing. He also shows to have some resistance to firearms, one instance being when Helter-Skelter riddled Travis with bullets and rockets, culminating with absolutely no effects. This also may have been related to the robe he was wearing at the time, however. Despite this, Travis managed to survive many deadly attacks without the robe, ranging from a series of energy blasts, three consecutive close range grenade explosions, to a death blow to the chest. In the Trading Card Game There are a number of Travis Touchdown trading cards in the Design Materials set. These include "Travis Touchdown" Front, "Travis Touchdown" Side / Back, "Travis Touchdown" Expressions, Travis Touchdown PR Illustration A, Travis Touchdown PR Illustration B, Travis Touchdown PR Illustration C, Travis Touchdown, Travis Touchdown and the Schpeltiger and Travis Touchdown & Sylvia Christel. Quotes No More Heroes *''Fuck Head!'' *''It's game time!'' *''You're the one leaving in a body bag.'' No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle *''It's called "fashionably late", fuck face.'' *''Spare me the mystic crap. I came here to fight.'' *''You going to fight me with all your hoes?'' *''Psychotic fucker. Time for a little pro bono ghost bustin!'' *''Everybody deals with grief differently right? Some people fuck at funerals...I cut off heads.'' *''Pain in my ass, why aren't you dead yet?'' Trivia * His name might be a reference to Travis Henry, the football player who has 11 children with 10 different mothers. Travis has a lot of siblings, some from different mothers and has a twin brother named Henry. His last name Touchdown might be a reference to Travis Henry's career. * The trading card "Travis Touchdown" Front depicts Travis holding a gun which bares a strong resemblance to the DL-44 blaster pistol featured in the Star Wars films. * Travis Touchdown's red jacket, unique swordplay, dark hair, physical abilities and amoral persona as well as his love of women are comparable to Samurai Champloo's Mugen. Curiously, No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacture was involved in the video game adaptation Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked. **It should also be noted that in the Japanese version of No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise, Travis is voiced by Kazuya Nakai, who voiced Mugen. * Henry and Travis have been compared by fans to have the relationship and personalities of the main characters of Devil May Cry 3 Vergil and Dante, respectively. The only difference between the Henry and Vergil would be that Henry keeps his hair down while Vergil styles it. The same could be said about Travis and Dante as Travis styles his hair up while Dante keeps it down. * In the trailer for No More Heroes and beginning to No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, Travis wears the same robe and is instantly shot at in the beginning of his battle with Helter Skelter and Skelter Helter. These battles are also similar due to the fact Travis decapitates them at the end. Ironically, though Travis tells Skelter Helter the building they're fighting on is "where my lasted killing spree started.", he does not remember he killed Helter Skelter on the building. * Travis's wrestling training in Calgary is a reference to the fact that the city is home to the Hart family, an influential and famous wrestling family. * The masks on Travis' wall are real luchadors. * The only time Travis is seen without his shades is when he had sex with Sylvia. * In Travis's Motel on the right side of his bed has a picture frame of the Virgin Mary Guadalupe, this could possibly mean that Travis is either a Catholic, possibly Hispanic, or influence by the Mexican culture due to the fact of being a luchadore fanatic, using wrestling moves, having wrestling masks hanging on the wall. * Travis's attitude, style, and overall look is based upon the "Jackass" star Johnny Knoxville . Gallery File:Travis_Sylvia_And_Jeane_Card150.jpg|Travis with Sylvia Travis2.jpg Travis3.jpg Travis4.jpg Travis5.jpg Travis6.jpg Travis7.jpg Travis10.jpg Travis7.1.jpg Travis4.1.jpg Travis12.jpg Travis16.jpg Travis9.jpg Travis33.jpg Travis32.jpg Travis31.jpg Travis41.jpg|Travis about to disarm Death Metal Travis40.jpg Travis38.jpg|A long road to #1 Category:Characters in No More Heroes Category:Characters in No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle Category:Notable members of the United Assassins Association